By my calculations that means that congressmen can be bought for less than $400K. My, my, my what an insanely great ROI.
Buying congresscritters can be very profitable. San Diego contracor Brent Wilke's companies have recieved about 100 million in federal contracts, for an investment of a little more than 706,000 by him and his associates since 1997. Wilkes refers to this process as 'transactional lobbying.'
Ah, yes, the water cascading over the concrete barriers and gently splashing into the concrete-lined culvert below. I remember going to sleep to the sound of 300 car trains hauling potatoes out of town.
Many of the software engineering jobs aren't in Idaho Falls itself, but out at 'The Site', the Idaho National Engineering (and Environmental) Laboratory. It's a convenient 75-90 minute bus ride out of town, just north of Atomic City (Quonset hut with a bar, gas station, and post office).
INE(E)L is located so far from town so as to provide a buffer zone in case of a little mistake in one of the engineering projects. Interesting place, if you ever find out what went on in some of the widely separated facilities out there. (Hint: the original name was Reactor Testing Station...)
Having someone edit out the original author's names and put their own in on a piece of contributed code isn't plagiarism?
Could you let the rest of us know why this isn't possible under the GPL but possible under MIT/BSD/etc style licenses, please.
As it turns out, it is possible to be an unethical a**hole under, or in spite of, any license. If anyone knows of a licensing scheme that can successfully prohibit this sort of behavior I'd love to hear about it.
BTW, I am a different sort of a**hole, one of the ones that goes after the unethical a**holes described above and is willing to spend cash on bringing them down. That should get me moderated 'flamebait' around here.
Meanwhile, I get 1.2Mb/1.2Mb for the equivalent of EU 50/month. So, for maybe EU 20/$25 US more a month, I could get 1000 times the bandwidth, if only I lived near Paris. Tough choices...
Given how likely it is that I'll see that sort of home bandwidth at that price here in the US of A within the next 20 years (~0.00000001%), I guess it's time to look into a comfy little gite.
You can't plagiarize something that was offered to you as a gift -- and that's sort of the point of open source, isn't it? That your work becomes part of the commons?
Having someone edit out the original author's names and put their own in on a piece of contributed code isn't plagiarism?
Finding something you co-authored back in 1987-1990 out there with the names filed off, and a new 1997 date and copyright attached can be annoying, and definitely calls the new 'authors' ethics into question. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only person who has encountered this.
Alas, they didn't get my last round of bug fixes, but I'll be damned if I'll contribute to 'their' code.
will it leave a message? Something along the lines of:
I am the Eschaton. I am not your god. I am descended from you, and I exist in your future. Thou shalt not violate causality within my historical light cone. Or else.
Why doesn't SGI just admit they're no longer needed to make computers, and just make graphics cards?
Because the teams that used to build SGI's graphics iron are now mostly over at nVidia? SGI's midrange graphics folks (Odyssey project and related folks), the ones who could build new chip sets and drivers for graphics cards, were transferred to SGI in 1999, as part of the same turnaround effort that laid off the advanced graphics division engineers.
SGI's current 'visualization systems' use off the shelf graphics hardware such as the ATI FireGL GPUs.
Heh. Origami. The cheap ultramobile 'lifestyle' PC that wasn't cheap or ultramobile.
From the hype on CNet: "Microsoft's goal is to create a blueprint for devices that could sell for $600 or less, although the actual prices will depend greatly on what manufacturers decide to include. Origami is capable of supporting features like GPS, Bluetooth, 3G cellular technology and Wi-Fi, though each of these adds to the cost of the device."
That instantly transformed into "GPS, Bluetooth, Cellphones, and WiFi for $600!1!! OMG! Ponies!"
I think we all know what happened when reality hit. 1.7 - 2 pound mini-tablets with base prices around $1200, or totally stripped around $950 (no GPS, Cell, WiFi, etc). Not exactly pocket-sized, unless you're into jumbo-size cargo pants.
We already see the features being piled onto this 'iPod killer', and it isn't even announced. Today I've seen claims of WiFi and Bluetooth included, bizarre on-the-fly music sharing and social networking, free copies of purchased iTunes, cellphone-like downloads and purchasing without a computer, and oh, it's a portable video player too.
Whatever they ship, if anything, will be a disappointment. From the touted features, this thing will have to be close to the capabilities of a fully loaded Origami box. That's expensive. A smaller screen and battery, and replacing a general purpose OS with a dedicated system will only shave so much off the price.
More realistically, the feature set sounds like Nintendo DS + iPod + cellphone/PDA. Maybe like a Nokia 770 (low end) or Sony VIAO UX50 (high end)? (with more than 3.5 hours of battery life, please!)
Microsoft has been signing up companies to license it's WMA DRM for their players, getting all those companies to pay license fees, and agree to provide Microsoft with sample gear for 'PlaysForSure' testing, and also getting them to sign a license agreement to hold Microsoft harmless for any Intellectual Property violations (patents, design infringement, copyright, etc.)
Now they're going to go into direct competition with their licensees. This should go over well...
I'm sure the licensees all understand that they were really just preparing a market for Microsoft, and will quietly close up shop. Certainly, none of these companies such as Creative Labs has ever shown any tendency to cause trouble or litigate. I'm sure they can all simply rely on the US Justice Department's oversight and Microsoft's honoring the DOJ settlement and consent decree to ensure that Microsoft won't try to extend it's monopoly here.
Right...
Another group of companies are about to learn what happens when one 'partners' with Microsoft. Have a nice day, fellas.
I for one welcome the new French law. Finally, Apple will be able to demand that CANALPLAY, coramusic.fr, Discovery, Fnac Music, M6, MSN Music, Packard Bell, Tiscali Music, Virgin Downloads, and Wanadoo Jukebox deliver the means to decode and play their music on iPods without all the strings that a Microsoft WMA DRM license comes with (product pre-approval and IP indemnification being the nastiest bits).
Of course, it remains to be seen how these companies can provide the legally mandated software when it belongs to Microsoft and not them. The French courts will have to hash that out. It appears the French legislature may have implemented their own version of Heinlein's "Crosspatch Decision."
"Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy... [sic] censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything --you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."
"creating prioritized vertical slices that iterate on the most critical elements and features"
Can someone tell me what this means?
It is an improved development methodology wherein the older spiral development methodology, which was characterized by repeatedly iterating a set of elemental development processes and managing risk so it is actively being reduced, is enhanced by managing stakeholder life cycle commitments via the LCO, LCA, and IOC Anchor Point Milestones with the degree of detail of artifacts produced in each cycle driven by risk considerations while considering critical stakeholder objectives and constraints, product and process alternatives, risk identification and resolution, stakeholder review, and commitment to proceed as part of concurrent rather than sequential determination of key artifacts--Ops Concept, Requirements, Plans, Design, Code - within each slice.
The implementation of the methodology must be done with care so as to avoid hazards such as incremental sequential waterfalls with significant COTS, user interface, or technology risks, the exclusion of key stakeholders from each vertical slice, a lack of commitment to managing risks, and insistence on complete specifications for COTS, user interface, or deferred-decision situations.
It is, in fact, a perfectly cromulent solution to modern software development bottlenecks.
This should go over well with all those companies that hitched their wagon to Microsoft's star and licensed Windows Media DRM 10, then came back for more licensing and test fees for PlaysForSure.
I'l sure they'll all understand that they were really just preparing a market for Microsoft, and will quietly close up shop. Certainly, none of these companies such as Creative Labs has ever shown any tendency to cause trouble or litigate. I'm sure they can all simply rely on the US Justice Department's oversight and Microsoft's honoring the DOJ settlement and consent decree to ensure that Microsoft won't try to extend it's monopoly here.
Yup. The opening of an investigation simply means "Congratulations! You filled out the form AND remembered to sign it!" Creative is going old-school SCO style by touting this in a series of press releases.
open up its iTunes software so it is compatible with the technology of other manufacturers.
So, does he mean open as in Open Media Commons http://www.openmediacommons.org/ or does he really mean that Apple should bow to Microsoft Windows Media DRM? (BPI and Microsoft are partners in a number of DRM related projects.)
Apple can just license FairPlay for use on any music player to be sold in the Norwegian market, at going market rates, say:
0.20 USD per final unit sold, with an 800,000 USD a year maximum, licensed for resale in Norway only.
That's the going rate for Windows Media DRM 10 for portable devices. Since, as we see in this case, each country wants to assert sovereign control over what is or is not permitted, and has it's own terms regarding the nature of the license, the exact nature of the DRM must be adjusted to meet local legal restrictions. Each third party player would need a special Norwegian version of its product that meets the terms of the agreements and licenses.
Apple can make the same requirements as Microsoft does for portable device DRM licenses, including the requirement that preproduction samples be made available for compliance testing and review, and that licensees agree not to litigate against the licensor on intellectual property issues such as patents. (No Creative nuisance suits)
A properly constructed license would both comply with Norwegian law, and ensure that no company in it's right mind would want to obtain a license. The Norwegian Ombudsman gets to claim victory, and Apple doesn't have to actually do anything real.
The architect of the HP division's change, Randy Mott, is regarded by Wall Street as a mastermind of operational efficiency based on his days as chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores and Dell.
Heh. It's a cheap stealth layoff. Quite a few of the telecommuting workers won't go along with the change, and will find other work. Telecommuting IT employees tend to be more senior (both higher salary, and older). This both gives HP IT a dodge around US laws establishing protected-class workers (over age 40), and allows a fairly cheap staffing reduction:
By August, almost all of HP's IT employees will have to work in one of 25 designated offices during most of the week. With many thousands of HP IT employees scattered across 100 sites around the world -- from Palo Alto to Dornach, Germany -- the new rules require many to move. Those who don't will be out of work without severance pay, according to several employees affected by the changes.
Employees who don't play along are not laid off, but instead either quit or are terminated for cause. This dodges the legal issues (42 USC 2000e and the ADEA, see also http://www.eeoc.gov/), and avoids severence pay and contract issues.
Randy Mott is known as a real "fix it" guy in IT Management circles. This move will get him well on the way of accomplishing a streamilining of HP IT. (IT workers are probably well aware of what management streamlining means for them...)
Well, if they don't value their security sufficiently, their privacy will be moot because they will be dead.
It is one hundred times more likely that you will die in an automobile accident than a terrorist act.
Are you willing to have your every action in a vehicle monitored in detail, so that we may protect other citizens from harm should you be found to be a less than perfect driver? "Smithers, that man failed to adjust his rear view mirror before pulling out. Have his vehicle impounded!"
Perhaps it is from EMP from all the wires/power/machines that run up the wall *to* the tower, not the tower itself.
Or perhaps it is the type of carpeting or adhesive used, or the paint formulation, or something in the wood polish, or improper air exchange for those two floors. See, the thing of it is that an observed correlation does not imply cause. One could, for example, demonstrate that even as global average temperatures rise, the number of pirates have dropped. This does not mean that the drop in pirates has caused the temperature rise, not does it mean that the temperature rise has led to massive pirate die-off. It's a correlation.
We do know that exposure to certain chemicals, including chlorinated hydrocarbons (like PVC) and benzene, is associated with a higher risk of brain cancers. There is an identified path (cause and effect) involving chromosome aberrations leading to neoplasia, including brain tumors.
No wonder the telco/ISPs will get to block VoIP communications. No handy pen registers on an encrypted stream of packets going through offshore routers, eh?
Please note that this is the Artists RIGHTS Society, not Artists Society, As with other organizations more concerned with rights than creative works, it is populated by those concerned primarily with the licensing, copyright, and monitoring of creative works, rather than the creators of those works.
In other words, lawyers.
Specifically, lawyers looking to take a cut off the top, a piece of the action, as part of an umbrella licensing organization. Sound familiar?
"Like, Marge becomes a robot, maybe Moe gets a cell phone, Has Bart ever owned a bear or, How 'bout a crazy wedding? Where something happens, and doo doo doo doo, doo..." -- SONG: They'll Never Stop The Simpsons, DABF12 "Gump Roast"
About once every 5 years, they re-issue something and act like they have given us fans some piece of gold.
That's to meet the activity requirement to prevent their trademark from lapsing under EU Community trademark rules. Can't have lawsuits over it if it lapses.
Slashdot Mirror
By my calculations that means that congressmen can be bought for less than $400K. My, my, my what an insanely great ROI.
l kes.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1154836800&en=b811f7519279d9b2 &ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin
Buying congresscritters can be very profitable. San Diego contracor Brent Wilke's companies have recieved about 100 million in federal contracts, for an investment of a little more than 706,000 by him and his associates since 1997. Wilkes refers to this process as 'transactional lobbying.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/washington/06wi
Ah, yes, the water cascading over the concrete barriers and gently splashing into the concrete-lined culvert below. I remember going to sleep to the sound of 300 car trains hauling potatoes out of town.
s /ineel.html
Many of the software engineering jobs aren't in Idaho Falls itself, but out at 'The Site', the Idaho National Engineering (and Environmental) Laboratory. It's a convenient 75-90 minute bus ride out of town, just north of Atomic City (Quonset hut with a bar, gas station, and post office).
INE(E)L is located so far from town so as to provide a buffer zone in case of a little mistake in one of the engineering projects. Interesting place, if you ever find out what went on in some of the widely separated facilities out there. (Hint: the original name was Reactor Testing Station...)
http://www.idptv.state.id.us/buildingbig/building
http://nuclear.inl.gov/52reactors.shtml
Having someone edit out the original author's names and put their own in on a piece of contributed code isn't plagiarism?
Could you let the rest of us know why this isn't possible under the GPL but possible under MIT/BSD/etc style licenses, please.
As it turns out, it is possible to be an unethical a**hole under, or in spite of, any license. If anyone knows of a licensing scheme that can successfully prohibit this sort of behavior I'd love to hear about it.
BTW, I am a different sort of a**hole, one of the ones that goes after the unethical a**holes described above and is willing to spend cash on bringing them down. That should get me moderated 'flamebait' around here.
Let's see... 2.5Gb/1.2Gb for EU 70/month.
Meanwhile, I get 1.2Mb/1.2Mb for the equivalent of EU 50/month. So, for maybe EU 20/$25 US more a month, I could get 1000 times the bandwidth, if only I lived near Paris. Tough choices...
Given how likely it is that I'll see that sort of home bandwidth at that price here in the US of A within the next 20 years (~0.00000001%), I guess it's time to look into a comfy little gite.
You can't plagiarize something that was offered to you as a gift -- and that's sort of the point of open source, isn't it? That your work becomes part of the commons?
Having someone edit out the original author's names and put their own in on a piece of contributed code isn't plagiarism?
Finding something you co-authored back in 1987-1990 out there with the names filed off, and a new 1997 date and copyright attached can be annoying, and definitely calls the new 'authors' ethics into question. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only person who has encountered this.
Alas, they didn't get my last round of bug fixes, but I'll be damned if I'll contribute to 'their' code.
will it leave a message? Something along the lines of:
I am the Eschaton. I am not your god.
I am descended from you, and I exist in your future.
Thou shalt not violate causality within my historical light cone. Or else.
-- Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky", 2003
Why doesn't SGI just admit they're no longer needed to make computers, and just make graphics cards?
Because the teams that used to build SGI's graphics iron are now mostly over at nVidia? SGI's midrange graphics folks (Odyssey project and related folks), the ones who could build new chip sets and drivers for graphics cards, were transferred to SGI in 1999, as part of the same turnaround effort that laid off the advanced graphics division engineers.
SGI's current 'visualization systems' use off the shelf graphics hardware such as the ATI FireGL GPUs.
Never mind those other fiddley little details. What I want to know is "What jurisdiction do we file the class action litigation in?"
Heh. Origami. The cheap ultramobile 'lifestyle' PC that wasn't cheap or ultramobile.
From the hype on CNet:
"Microsoft's goal is to create a blueprint for devices that could sell for $600 or less, although the actual prices will depend greatly on what manufacturers decide to include. Origami is capable of supporting features like GPS, Bluetooth, 3G cellular technology and Wi-Fi, though each of these adds to the cost of the device."
That instantly transformed into "GPS, Bluetooth, Cellphones, and WiFi for $600!1!! OMG! Ponies!"
I think we all know what happened when reality hit. 1.7 - 2 pound mini-tablets with base prices around $1200, or totally stripped around $950 (no GPS, Cell, WiFi, etc). Not exactly pocket-sized, unless you're into jumbo-size cargo pants.
We already see the features being piled onto this 'iPod killer', and it isn't even announced. Today I've seen claims of WiFi and Bluetooth included, bizarre on-the-fly music sharing and social networking, free copies of purchased iTunes, cellphone-like downloads and purchasing without a computer, and oh, it's a portable video player too.
Whatever they ship, if anything, will be a disappointment. From the touted features, this thing will have to be close to the capabilities of a fully loaded Origami box. That's expensive. A smaller screen and battery, and replacing a general purpose OS with a dedicated system will only shave so much off the price.
More realistically, the feature set sounds like Nintendo DS + iPod + cellphone/PDA. Maybe like a Nokia 770 (low end) or Sony VIAO UX50 (high end)? (with more than 3.5 hours of battery life, please!)
Microsoft has been signing up companies to license it's WMA DRM for their players, getting all those companies to pay license fees, and agree to provide Microsoft with sample gear for 'PlaysForSure' testing, and also getting them to sign a license agreement to hold Microsoft harmless for any Intellectual Property violations (patents, design infringement, copyright, etc.)
Now they're going to go into direct competition with their licensees. This should go over well...
I'm sure the licensees all understand that they were really just preparing a market for Microsoft, and will quietly close up shop. Certainly, none of these companies such as Creative Labs has ever shown any tendency to cause trouble or litigate. I'm sure they can all simply rely on the US Justice Department's oversight and Microsoft's honoring the DOJ settlement and consent decree to ensure that Microsoft won't try to extend it's monopoly here.
Right...
Another group of companies are about to learn what happens when one 'partners' with Microsoft. Have a nice day, fellas.
I for one welcome the new French law. Finally, Apple will be able to demand that CANALPLAY, coramusic.fr, Discovery, Fnac Music, M6, MSN Music, Packard Bell, Tiscali Music, Virgin Downloads, and Wanadoo Jukebox deliver the means to decode and play their music on iPods without all the strings that a Microsoft WMA DRM license comes with (product pre-approval and IP indemnification being the nastiest bits).
Of course, it remains to be seen how these companies can provide the legally mandated software when it belongs to Microsoft and not them. The French courts will have to hash that out. It appears the French legislature may have implemented their own version of Heinlein's "Crosspatch Decision."
"Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy ... [sic] censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything --you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
"creating prioritized vertical slices that iterate on the most critical elements and features"
Can someone tell me what this means?
It is an improved development methodology wherein the older spiral development methodology, which was characterized by repeatedly iterating a set of elemental development processes and managing risk so it is actively being reduced, is enhanced by managing stakeholder life cycle commitments via the LCO, LCA, and IOC Anchor Point Milestones with the degree of detail of artifacts produced in each cycle driven by risk considerations while considering critical stakeholder objectives and constraints, product and process alternatives, risk identification and resolution, stakeholder review, and commitment to proceed as part of concurrent rather than sequential determination of key artifacts--Ops Concept, Requirements, Plans, Design, Code - within each slice.
The implementation of the methodology must be done with care so as to avoid hazards such as incremental sequential waterfalls with significant COTS, user interface, or technology risks, the exclusion of key stakeholders from each vertical slice, a lack of commitment to managing risks, and insistence on complete specifications for COTS, user interface, or deferred-decision situations.
It is, in fact, a perfectly cromulent solution to modern software development bottlenecks.
This should go over well with all those companies that hitched their wagon to Microsoft's star and licensed Windows Media DRM 10, then came back for more licensing and test fees for PlaysForSure.
I'l sure they'll all understand that they were really just preparing a market for Microsoft, and will quietly close up shop. Certainly, none of these companies such as Creative Labs has ever shown any tendency to cause trouble or litigate. I'm sure they can all simply rely on the US Justice Department's oversight and Microsoft's honoring the DOJ settlement and consent decree to ensure that Microsoft won't try to extend it's monopoly here.
isn't this is a normal step for the ITC to take
Yup. The opening of an investigation simply means "Congratulations! You filled out the form AND remembered to sign it!" Creative is going old-school SCO style by touting this in a series of press releases.
open up its iTunes software so it is compatible with the technology of other manufacturers.
So, does he mean open as in Open Media Commons http://www.openmediacommons.org/ or does he really mean that Apple should bow to Microsoft Windows Media DRM? (BPI and Microsoft are partners in a number of DRM related projects.)
Apple can just license FairPlay for use on any music player to be sold in the Norwegian market, at going market rates, say:
0.20 USD per final unit sold, with an 800,000 USD a year maximum, licensed for resale in Norway only.
That's the going rate for Windows Media DRM 10 for portable devices. Since, as we see in this case, each country wants to assert sovereign control over what is or is not permitted, and has it's own terms regarding the nature of the license, the exact nature of the DRM must be adjusted to meet local legal restrictions. Each third party player would need a special Norwegian version of its product that meets the terms of the agreements and licenses.
Apple can make the same requirements as Microsoft does for portable device DRM licenses, including the requirement that preproduction samples be made available for compliance testing and review, and that licensees agree not to litigate against the licensor on intellectual property issues such as patents. (No Creative nuisance suits)
A properly constructed license would both comply with Norwegian law, and ensure that no company in it's right mind would want to obtain a license. The Norwegian Ombudsman gets to claim victory, and Apple doesn't have to actually do anything real.
The architect of the HP division's change, Randy Mott, is regarded by Wall Street as a mastermind of operational efficiency based on his days as chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores and Dell.
Heh. It's a cheap stealth layoff. Quite a few of the telecommuting workers won't go along with the change, and will find other work. Telecommuting IT employees tend to be more senior (both higher salary, and older). This both gives HP IT a dodge around US laws establishing protected-class workers (over age 40), and allows a fairly cheap staffing reduction:
By August, almost all of HP's IT employees will have to work in one of 25 designated offices during most of the week. With many thousands of HP IT employees scattered across 100 sites around the world -- from Palo Alto to Dornach, Germany -- the new rules require many to move. Those who don't will be out of work without severance pay, according to several employees affected by the changes.
Employees who don't play along are not laid off, but instead either quit or are terminated for cause. This dodges the legal issues (42 USC 2000e and the ADEA, see also http://www.eeoc.gov/), and avoids severence pay and contract issues.
Randy Mott is known as a real "fix it" guy in IT Management circles. This move will get him well on the way of accomplishing a streamilining of HP IT. (IT workers are probably well aware of what management streamlining means for them...)
The State is Mother, The State is Father.
Oh, and don't forget to pick up the new armbands on the way out!
Well, if they don't value their security sufficiently, their privacy will be moot because they will be dead.
It is one hundred times more likely that you will die in an automobile accident than a terrorist act.
Are you willing to have your every action in a vehicle monitored in detail, so that we may protect other citizens from harm should you be found to be a less than perfect driver? "Smithers, that man failed to adjust his rear view mirror before pulling out. Have his vehicle impounded!"
Perhaps it is from EMP from all the wires/power/machines that run up the wall *to* the tower, not the tower itself.
Or perhaps it is the type of carpeting or adhesive used, or the paint formulation, or something in the wood polish, or improper air exchange for those two floors. See, the thing of it is that an observed correlation does not imply cause. One could, for example, demonstrate that even as global average temperatures rise, the number of pirates have dropped. This does not mean that the drop in pirates has caused the temperature rise, not does it mean that the temperature rise has led to massive pirate die-off. It's a correlation.
We do know that exposure to certain chemicals, including chlorinated hydrocarbons (like PVC) and benzene, is associated with a higher risk of brain cancers. There is an identified path (cause and effect) involving chromosome aberrations leading to neoplasia, including brain tumors.
No wonder the telco/ISPs will get to block VoIP communications. No handy pen registers on an encrypted stream of packets going through offshore routers, eh?
Please note that this is the Artists RIGHTS Society, not Artists Society, As with other organizations more concerned with rights than creative works, it is populated by those concerned primarily with the licensing, copyright, and monitoring of creative works, rather than the creators of those works.
In other words, lawyers.
Specifically, lawyers looking to take a cut off the top, a piece of the action, as part of an umbrella licensing organization. Sound familiar?
But what story is too big for a Simpsons episode?
"Like, Marge becomes a robot, maybe Moe gets a cell phone,
Has Bart ever owned a bear or, How 'bout a crazy wedding?
Where something happens, and doo doo doo doo, doo..."
-- SONG: They'll Never Stop The Simpsons, DABF12 "Gump Roast"
About once every 5 years, they re-issue something and act like they have given us fans some piece of gold.
That's to meet the activity requirement to prevent their trademark from lapsing under EU Community trademark rules. Can't have lawsuits over it if it lapses.